Public financing means cleaner elections. This is obvious to anyone who has the most basic understanding of how elections work. The commenter above, who is suggesting we, the public, are better served by Ed Lee taking huge sums of money from billionaires and corporations--than we are by him taking public financing--knows full well that this is precisely backwards.

Campaign contributions are legal bribes. The contributors who give the most money successfully buy the most favors from politicians. No one refutes this. For example: the reason the federal government bailed out the corporate banks instead of bailing out the people, is because the banks bought off congress and the White House with huge campaign contributions. If the members of congress and the president had taken public financing instead of private financing for their campaigns, it would have been the public receiving bailouts instead of corporations. Actually, were national campaigns publicly financed, the economic collapse wouldn't have even happened in the first place, because the banks would never have been deregulated allowing for all the shenanigans that caused the collapse.

So you see, corporate financing of elections, costs taxpayers *infinitely* more in the long run than public financing. The only people who should be upset by public financing are the wealthy corporations and individuals who buy their favors from politicians through campaign donations and independent expenditures.

The public is *far* worse served when Republican billionaire Ron Conway puts $100,000 towards Ed Lee campaign, than it is by the public financing going to other campaigns. Ron Conway is the 1% of the 1% and that is who Ed Lee will serve, first and foremost, if he is elected mayor.

The chronicle did write the story......but only to attempt to exhonerate Lee and to attempt a hit at Herrera for getting donations from attorneys who have worked with CA. Very different issue and really makes obvious the Chrons bias.
I didn't have issues per se with Lee but this story and how all the same old names who screwed us in the past are involved plus this crap from the Chron has made me see the real danger here. We cannot afford to go back to the days of Willie Brown. And let's thank Jane Kim for bringing us back the nightmare days.
Yes folks. The game IS ON.

This measure does absolutely nothing to address the exorbitant pension payout to the highest paid City workers that is claimed to be busting the pension fund, it does not attempt to realign payout of retirement benefits equitably and uniformly among all public worker categories IN A REAL effort to reign in costs.

Proposition C was concocted by self-serving Union bosses in collusion with Management and a billionaire with little to no input from rank and file members of the lowest paid and most adversely affected, nor from retirees.

One of the BACK-ROOM DEALs between Mayor Ed Lee and SEIU1021 Union negotiates the transfer of paid wages known as “premium pay” for union members back to the City effective July 01, 2012; placing yet more of a drain on The City’s General Fund to pay for the cost!
These are OUR TAX DOLLARS!!

REMOVE Mayor Lee and Vote NO on prop C!

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am i voting for this commie.

How about all the shills, hacks, and political prostitutes who populate this joke of a website give it a rest for awhile and let the actual citizens of SF have a conversation for a change. You can commence the online fellating of your respective Candidate Daddies after you all take a time out to swallow, rinse, and spit.